Improving in spite of injury - BJJ

 

Inevitably all BJJ or judo players will develop an injury, whether it is serious or simply an accumulation of small injuries it does not matter. The trap is not managing the desire to continue to train in spite of your injuries. This can lead to long breaks from the sport and early retirement.  

Mature players understand that they can continue to improve off the mat by working their minds. Purposefully considering techniques and strategy is a substitute and in some cases preferable to training. 

The rest granted by avoiding training can supply the breakthrough time and energy that your analysis needs. As it goes 'the hardest work is hard thinking' and the insight that this practice gives you may be more valuable than any technique you learn in class simply because it is an expression of your own style.  This is the best type of technique as it is fully integrated into your game and binds techniques together into a flowy dangerous wave that culminates in submission.  

And so when you finally return to the mats the techniques precipitate out when they're needed and the answers appear without the questions being posed.